Data Fail-Over for a Multi-Computer System

1. A data fail-over system for a plurality of computer systems, the system comprising: a plurality of computers, wherein each computer comprises: a processor; and a storage medium coupled to the processor; at least one human interface device; and a switch coupled to at least two of the plurality of computers, and further coupled to the at least one human interface device, wherein the switch is configured to route signals between the at least one human interface device and a first computer of the plurality of computers; wherein the storage medium of the first computer stores information; wherein the storage medium of at least one computer of the plurality of computers stores program instructions which are executable by the processor of said at least one computer to: copy the at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the first computer onto a storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers; after said copying, monitor the first computer for a fail-over condition; detect the fail-over condition for the first computer; and in response to said detection, copy the at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the at least one third computer onto the storage medium of the second computer after said detection of the fail-over condition; and configure the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, thereby routing signals between the at least one human interface device and the second computer.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein, in copying said at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the first computer onto the storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, the program instructions are executable to implement a delta-based back-up scheme.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein, in implementing the delta-based back-up scheme, the program instructions are executable to: note each of one or more incremental backups for the first computer in a catalog; send the catalog to said at least one third computer, wherein said at least one third computer compares said catalog to the incremental backups stored on said at least one third computer, and wherein if said at least one third computer determines that at least one incremental backup is missing from the storage medium of said at least one third computer, said at least one third computer receives and stores said at least one missing incremental backup from said first computer.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, in said copying at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the first computer onto the storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, the program instructions are further executable to periodically update said at least a portion of the information stored on the storage medium of the at least one third computer based on updated information stored on the storage medium of the first computer.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one third computer is located geographically remote from said first computer.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one third computer comprises a local computer and a remote computer, wherein the local computer is geographically local to the first computer and the remote computer is geographically remote to the first computer; wherein, in copying said at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the first computer onto the storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, the program instructions are executable to: if said local computer is functional, copy said at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the local computer to said first computer onto the storage medium of the second computer after said detection, and if said local computer is not functional, copy said at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the remote computer onto the storage medium of the second computer after said detection.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one third computer comprises a remote computer, wherein the remote computer is geographically remote to the first computer; and wherein, in copying said at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the first computer onto the storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, the program instructions are further executable to: copy at least a portion of information from the storage medium of an additional computer of the plurality of computers onto the remote computer.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions are further executable to: detect an identity of one or more of said first computer, said second computer, and said at least one third computer; wherein said identity is used by said at least one computer to assign said one or more of said second computer and said at least one third computer to said first computer, such that said at least a portion of information from said storage medium of said first computer is stored onto said storage medium of said one or more of said second computer and said at least one third computer.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein said program instructions are further executable to: store a replication factor for the first computer, wherein said replication factor indicates the number of other computers of the plurality of computers onto which to store said at least a portion of information from the storage medium of the first computer.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one computer of the plurality of computers comprises one or more of the first computer and the second computer.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein each of said one or more of the first computer and the second computer stores and executes at least a respective portion of the program instructions.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one computer of the plurality of computers comprises one or more of the first computer, the second computer, and a third computer of the plurality of computers.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein each of said one or more of the first computer, the second computer, and the third computer stores and executes at least a respective portion of the program instructions.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein said program instructions are executable to perform at least a subset of said storing, said monitoring, said detecting, and said configuring without human input.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein, in configuring the switch to switch said signal routing in response to said detection, the program instructions are further executable to: indicate said detection to a human; receive input from the human specifying said configuring; and configuring the switch in response to said received input.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage medium of at least one of the plurality of computers stores program instructions implementing a virtual storage area network.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage medium of at least one of the plurality of computers stores program instructions implementing resource management software to manage one or more of processor usage, physical memory usage, hard drive usage, and network information usage for the plurality of computers.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage medium of at least one of the plurality of computers stores program instructions executable to create and maintain a location file, wherein said location file indicates one or more locations of said information.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein the storage medium of at least one of the first computer and the second computer stores program instructions implementing striping rules for storing information on the storage medium of at least one of the first computer and the second computer.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the plurality of computers comprises a respective blade computer.

21. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least a portion of the information comprises substantially all of the information stored on the storage medium of the first computer.

22. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a human interface, wherein the human interface comprises said at least one human interface device; wherein, in routing signals between the at least one human interface device and the first computer of the plurality of computers, the switch is operable to associate the human interface with the first computer; and wherein, after said switch, the human interface is associated with the second computer.

23. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the storage mediums of the plurality of computers comprises at least one of a random access memory module and a hard disk.

24. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a storage network coupled to said first computer and said second computer, wherein the storage network comprises a storage area network server; wherein the storage network server stores program instructions executable by said storage area network server to make the storage medium of the first computer accessible by the processor of the second computer, and to make the storage medium of the second computer accessible by the processor of the first computer.

25. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a first storage medium, wherein the storage network server stores program instructions further executable by said storage area network server to make said first storage medium accessible by the processor of the first computer and the processor of the second computer.

26. The system of claim 1 , wherein said program instructions are executable to perform said storing, said monitoring, said detecting, and said configuring without operation of a central server.

27. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions are further executable to: detect an identity of said first computer and/or said second computer; wherein said identity is used by said at least one computer to assign said second computer to said first computer, such that said at least a portion of information from said storage medium of said first computer is stored onto said storage medium of said second computer.

28. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement a graphical user interface for the system; wherein the graphical user interface comprises one or more of a login screen, a list of local computer blades, a configuration screen, a scheduling interface, an information recovery screen, an archive view screen, and an information recovery screen.

29. The system of claim 1 , wherein said fail-over condition indicates a need to upgrade to a higher performance computer, and wherein said second computer is a higher performing computer than said first computer.

30. The system of claim 1 , wherein said fail-over condition indicates a need to switch said first computer with said second computer.

31. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a second at least one human interface device, wherein the switch is further coupled to said second at least one human interface device, wherein the switch is further configured to route signals between the second at least one human interface device and the second computer; wherein the program instructions are further executable to: copy at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of said second computer onto said storage medium of said first computer; and wherein, in configuring the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, the program instructions are further executable to configure the switch to switch said signal routing from the second computer to the first computer, thereby routing signals between the second human interface device and the first computer.

32. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: a second at least one human interface device, wherein the switch is further coupled to said second at least one human interface device, wherein the switch is further configured to route signals between the second at least one human interface device and the second computer; wherein the program instructions are further executable to: copy at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of said second computer onto a storage medium of a fourth computer of the plurality of computers; and wherein, in configuring the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, the program instructions are further executable to configure the switch to switch said signal routing from the second computer to the fourth computer, thereby routing signals between the second human interface device and the fourth computer.

33. A computer-implemented method, comprising: copying at least a portion of information stored on a storage medium of a first computer of a plurality of computers onto a storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, wherein the first computer is coupled to at least one human interface device through a switch, and wherein the switch is configured to route signals between the at least one human interface device and the first computer; monitoring the first computer for a fail-over condition; detecting the fail-over condition for the first computer; and in response to said detection, copying the at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the at least one third computer onto the storage medium of a second computer after said detection of the fail-over condition; and configuring the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, thereby routing signals between the at least one human interface device and the second computer.

34. A computer-based system, comprising: means for copying at least a portion of information stored on a storage medium of a first computer of a plurality of computers onto a storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, wherein the first computer is coupled to at least one human interface device through a switch, and wherein the switch is configured to route signals between the at least one human interface device and the first computer; means for monitoring the first computer for a fail-over condition; means for detecting the fail-over condition for the first computer; and means for, in response to said detection, copying the at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the at least one third computer onto the storage medium of a second computer after said detection of the fail-over condition; and configuring the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, thereby routing signals between the at least one human interface device and the second computer.

35. A computer-accessible memory medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer executable to perform: copying at least a portion of information stored on a storage medium of a first computer of a plurality of computers onto a storage medium of at least one third computer of the plurality of computers, wherein the first computer is coupled to at least one human interface device through a switch, and wherein the switch is configured to route signals between the at least one human interface device and the first computer; monitoring the first computer for a fail-over condition; detecting the fail-over condition for the first computer; and in response to said detection, copying the at least a portion of the information from the storage medium of the at least one third computer onto the storage medium of a second computer after said detection of the fail-over condition; and configuring the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, thereby routing signals between the at least one human interface device and the second computer.

36. A data fail-over system for a plurality of computer systems, the system comprising: a plurality of computers, wherein each computer comprises: a processor; and a storage medium coupled to the processor; at least one human interface device; and a switch coupled to at least two of the plurality of computers, and further coupled to the at least one human interface device, wherein the switch is configured to route signals between the at least one human interface device and a first computer of the plurality of computers; wherein the storage medium of the first computer stores information; wherein the storage medium of at least one computer of the plurality of computers stores program instructions which are executable by the processor of said at least one computer to: store a copy of at least a portion of the information onto the storage medium of a second computer of the plurality of computers implementing a delta-based back-up scheme, wherein to implement the delta-based scheme, the program instructions which are executable to: note each of one or more incremental backups for the first computer in a catalog; and send the catalog to at least one other computer of said plurality of computers, wherein said at least one other computer compares said catalog to the incremental backups stored on said second computer, and wherein if said at least one other computer determines that at least one incremental backup is missing from the storage medium of said second computer, said second computer receives and stores said at least one missing incremental backup from said first computer; and wherein the program instructions are further executable to: after storing the copy, monitor the first computer for a fail-over condition; detect the fail-over condition for the first computer; and in response to said detection, configure the switch to switch said signal routing from the first computer to the second computer, thereby routing signals between the at least one human interface device and the second computer.